This is what good wine from the Albarossa grape tastes like

The unknown Albarossa grape from the Italian Piemonte gives quite full red wines. It is generally assumed that the Albarossa is a cross between the Barbera and the Nebbiolo. That is true, but not entirely.

What's the deal with Albarossa? Even the handful of winemakers who press a wine from it often put on the label that it is a cross between Nebbiolo and Barbera. That was also the intention when Giovanni Dalmasso went into the laboratory in 1938 to create a cross that would combine the quality of Nebbiolo with the much higher yields per hectare of Barbera. A dream grape, you might say. What Giovanni didn't tell him is that Albarossa is the result of a cross between Barbera and Nebbiolo di Dronero. The latter is a synonym for Chatus, a fairly insignificant grape variety.

Albarossa never became the star that Giovanni Dalmasso had in mind. No more than 10 hectares of it are planted in Piemonte. Every now and then you come across a wine made from this grape. You don't have to pass it up; Albarossa produces fairly full, tasty red wines.